Cardamom chocolate chip banana muffins

Whenever there are a bunch of bananas in the fruit bowl,  I secretly hope that no one will eat them. I will them to ripen and soften and get speckled with brown spots - because now there is an excuse to make banana bread. This is my favorite; especially since the bananas lend themselves so favorably to vegan baking. I promise you no one will be even able to tell that it is vegan and relatively low fat. These muffins fill your house with a heavenly scent as they are cooking up.

adapted from Jolinda Hackett's recipe

2 cups all purpose flour 

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cardamom powder

1/4 c oil

1 cup brown sugar

3 large ripe bananas

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350deg.  Grease your mini muffin pan and two mini loaf pans (or line it with baking liners).

Measure the first five ingredients into a small bowl and mix lightly to remove any lumps.

Measure the brown sugar into a large bowl. Mash the bananas into the bowl using a fork. Add the oil to the bowl. Mix the ingredients with a handheld whisk or wooden spoon until completely smooth.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two batches. If your batter looks a little stiff, mash in an additional banana. If you don't have an additional banana, add a 1/4 cup of warm non dairy milk. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the mini muffin tin till about 3/4 full. I usually have a little left over and I bake them into a couple of mini loaves for the kids. Or you could try to bake this in a regular muffin tin,

Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer in the center of the muffin( in a chocolate chip free zone) comes out clean.  Remove from oven. Cool for 5 minutes in tin and then on a wire rack.  Eat while still a little warm. These muffins taste real good the next day, toasted lightly in a toaster oven.

Applesauce muffins

Winter came to Portland late this year, we had the threat of snow and then rain, glorious rain. The weather was the perfect excuse to bake up these muffins.  There are very few things that I bake that are edible and this is one of them.
I adapted this from a recipe I found on Recipe Source.  In 2001 when there were not that many blogs around, this was my go to source for all recipes.This is a fat free recipe, but my version had 1/2 c of oil.
If you do try the fat free version, please let me know how it turns out.

The recipe with our minor tweaks. This made 12 standard muffins and 2 mini loaves.

2 cups flour 
1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch
 2 teaspoons baking soda
 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tsp tea masala

1 tsp ground ginger

16 ounces aplesauce (use a liquid measuring cup)

1/2 c of oil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees  and line a muffin tray with muffin cup liners. Mix dry ingredients together. 

Beat the applesauce and the oil together until frothy. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Combine just until well mixed.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.